Today is the one year anniversary of when Google released one of the most talked about algorithm updates ever - the Google Panda update.
Here is the history of the update thus far:
Past Panda Updates:
- Panda 3.2 on about January 15th
- Panda 3.1 on November 18th
- Panda 2.5.3 on October 19/20th
- Panda 2.5.2 on October 13th
- Panda 2.5.1 on October 9th
- Panda 2.5 on September 28th
- Panda 2.4 in August
- Panda 2.3 on around July 22nd.
- Panda 2.2 on June 18th or so.
- Panda 2.1 on May 9th or so.
- Panda 2.0 on April 11th or so.
- Panda 1.0 on February 24th
87% Effected Still Not Fully Recovered:
Earlier this month, I ran a new Panda poll asking Did You Recover From Panda? The responses are in and only 13% said they fully recovered, while 87% said they are still suffering from the Panda update. Put another way, 29% said they recovered a little but still are not at levels of pre-Panda Google referrals but 58% said they have not recovered at all!
This number is higher when compared to our 2011 survey which showd 85% haven't fully recovered. Although on this study, I removed the not applicables, so if you include them the results are closer to 70% of those who didn't fully recover. But those who were not impacted have nothing to recover from, so 87% makes more sense.
Help:
There is still that ongoing help thread at Google Webmaster Help, it currently has over 8,500 posts in it. But, clearly, for many, they have no clue how to get their sites out of the Panda mess they are in.
We have written over 80 stories in the past year on Panda alone. I won't list them all here, but you can get them by seeing our Panda category.
Search Quality Improve:
Many SEOs will say now, but overall, based on the nasty reviews Google was getting from the core public prior to Panda, I have to say Google accomplished what they wanted with search quality by implementing Panda.
Will it last - no. But I am sure 2012 will have its own Panda. Embrase yourselves SEOs.
Panda Infographic:
Search Engine Land and BlueGlass put together a nice infographic on the year of Panda:
Forum discussion continued at Google Webmaster Help.
Image credit to ShutterStock for Panda birthday.
